Italian tax incentives for film industry: the impact on the domestic sector and on the State

The national approach to public funding of the film industry has been subject to a shift in recent years, at an international level, moving from a grant and subsidy scheme towards more automatic form of supports, including tax incentives. The paper aims at analysing the impact of the new tax credit measures for the Italian film industry, introduced in 2008, within the framework of the 2007 financial law, and in force since the third quarter of 2009. The impact is evaluated on both the domestic film production companies and on the State accounts level. The measure of tax credit for film with cultural requirements provides the film production company with the possibility of offsetting its tax debt (national and regional income tax, VAT, social contribution and costs) during the production, within a cap of 15% of total eligible costs. Starting from the data collected and processed by the Ministry of Culture since the beginning of the implementation phase, the paper aims at demonstrating the positive balance for the State determined by the increase of private investments on film with cultural requirements and, consequently, of the induced direct and indirect tax return. A brief description of the measure will be followed by a comparison of the incremental value produced by the film sector throughout the year following the enforcement of the tax credit measures.The national approach to public funding of the film industry has been subject to a shift in recent years, at an international level, moving from a grant and subsidy scheme towards more automatic form of supports, including tax incentives. The paper aims at analysing the impact of the new tax credit measures for the Italian film industry, introduced in 2008, within the framework of the 2007 financial law, and in force since the third quarter of 2009. The impact is evaluated on both the domestic film production companies and on the State accounts level. The measure of tax credit for film with cultural requirements provides the film production company with the possibility of offsetting its tax debt (national and regional income tax, VAT, social contribution and costs) during the production, within a cap of 15% of total eligible costs. Starting from the data collected and processed by the Ministry of Culture since the beginning of the implementation phase, the paper aims at demonstrating the positive balance for the State determined by the increase of private investments on film with cultural requirements and, consequently, of the induced direct and indirect tax return. A brief description of the measure will be followed by a comparison of the incremental value produced by the film sector throughout the year following the enforcement of the tax credit measures.Invited Submission

Induced pluripotent stem cell-based organ-on-a-chip as personalized drug screening tools: A focus on neurodegenerative disorders

The Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) technology shows great potential to revolutionize the drugs development pipeline by mimicking the physiological environment and functions of human organs. The translational value of OoC is further enhanced when combined with patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to develop more realistic disease models, paving the way for the development of a new generation of patient-on-a-chip devices. iPSCs differentiation capacity leads to invaluable improvements in personalized medicine. Moreover, the connection of single-OoC into multi-OoC or body-on-a-chip allows to investigate drug pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetics through the study of multi-organs cross-talks. The need of a breakthrough thanks to this technology is particularly relevant within the field of neurodegenerative diseases, where the number of patients is increasing and the successful rate in drug discovery is worryingly low. In this review we discuss current iPSC-based OoC as drug screening models and their implication in development of new therapies for neurodegenerative disorders

A Novel Study and Meta-Analysis of the Genetic Variation of the Serotonin Transporter Promoter in the Italian Population Do Not Support a Large Effect on Alzheimer's Disease Risk

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder whose clinical onset is mainly characterized by memory loss. During AD progression, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) frequently occur. In this paper we evaluated the association between AD and the short/long (S/L) functional polymorphism of the promoter region of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) transporter gene (SLC6A4). The S-allele shows a 2-fold reduced transcriptional rate, causing an imbalance in 5-HT intracellular availability that might in turn trigger behavioral and cognitive alterations. We also genotyped the SLC6A4 promoter functional variant rs25531 (A → G). By comparing the genotypic and allelic frequencies in an Italian population of 235 AD and 207 controls, we found an association between 5-HTTLPR and AD (odds ratio for the L-allele versus the S-allele: 0.74, associated P value = .03), while no difference was found for the rs25531. A meta-analysis of studies in Italy assessing 5-HTTLPR and AD risk gave an estimation of odds ratio for the L-allele versus the S-allele of 0.85 (associated P value = .08). Overall, our findings are not supportive of a large genetic effect of the explored polymorphisms on AD risk

Management of hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women: current and emerging therapies

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is a common multifactorial condition which is characterized by a decrease in sexual desire that causes marked personal distress and/or interpersonal difficulty. The general idea that HSDD is a sexual dysfunction difficult to treat is due to the large number of potential causes and contributing factors. Indeed, a balanced approach comprising both biological and psycho-relational factors is mandatory for accurate diagnosis and tailored management in clinical practice. There are currently no approved pharmacological treatments for premenopausal women with HSDD, while transdermal testosterone is approved in Europe for postmenopausal women who experience HSDD as a result of a bilateral oophorectomy. Even though the role of sex hormones in modulating the sexual response during the entire reproductive life span of women is crucial, a better understanding of the neurobiological basis of sexual desire supports the idea that selective psychoactive agents may be proposed as nonhormonal treatments to restore the balance between excitatory and inhibitory stimuli leading to a normal sexual response cycle. We conclude that the ideal clinical approach to HSDD remains to be established in term of efficacy and safety, and further research is needed to develop specific hormonal and nonhormonal pharmacotherapies for individualized care in women

Notes on Profile Inversion and Closed Form Formulation of Compact GRIN Lenses

This note is an addendum to the paper Profile Inversion and Closed Form Formulation of Compact GRIN Lenses [1] and summarizes a few comments obtained after publication of [1]

Multidisciplinary Management of Pituitary Apoplexy

Pituitary apoplexy is a rare clinical syndrome due to ischemic or haemorrhagic necrosis of the pituitary gland which complicates 2–12% of pituitary tumours, especially nonfunctioning adenomas. In many cases, it results in severe neurological, ophthalmological, and endocrinological consequences and may require prompt surgical decompression. Pituitary apoplexy represents a rare medical emergency that necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. Modalities of treatment and times of intervention are still largely debated. Therefore, the management of patients with pituitary apoplexy is often empirically individualized and clinical outcome is inevitably related to the multidisciplinary team’s skills and experience. This review aims to highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the management of pituitary apoplexy and to discuss modalities of presentation, treatment, and times of intervention

Definition of miRNAs expression profile in glioblastoma samples: the relevance of non-neoplastic brain reference.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor that may occur in adults. Regardless of the huge improvements in surgery and molecular therapy, the outcome of neoplasia remains poor. MicroRNAs are small molecules involved in several cellular processes, and their expression is altered in the vast majority of tumors. Several studies reported the expression of different miRNAs in glioblastoma, but one of the most critical point in understanding glioblastoma miRNAs profile is the comparison of these studies. In this paper, we focused our attention on the non-neoplastic references used for determining miRNAs expression. The aim of this study was to investigate if using three different non-neoplastic brain references (normal adjacent the tumor, commercial total RNA, and epileptic specimens) could provide discrepant results. The analysis of 19 miRNAs was performed using Real-Time PCR, starting from the set of samples described above and the expression values compared. Moreover, the three different normal RNAs were used to determine the miRNAs profile in 30 glioblastomas. The data showed that different non-neoplastic controls could lead to different results and emphasize the importance of comparing miRNAs profiles obtained using the same experimental condition

miRNAs expression analysis in paired fresh/frozen and dissected formalin fixed and paraffin embedded glioblastoma using real-time pCR.

miRNAs are small molecules involved in gene regulation. Each tissue shows a characteristic miRNAs epression profile that could be altered during neoplastic transformation. Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumour of the adult with a high rate of mortality. Recognizing a specific pattern of miRNAs for GBM could provide further boost for target therapy. The availability of fresh tissue for brain specimens is often limited and for this reason the possibility of starting from formalin fixed and paraffin embedded tissue (FFPE) could very helpful even in miRNAs expression analysis. We analysed a panel of 19 miRNAs in 30 paired samples starting both from FFPE and Fresh/Frozen material. Our data revealed that there is a good correlation in results obtained from FFPE in comparison with those obtained analysing miRNAs extracted from Fresh/Frozen specimen. In the few cases with a not good correlation value we noticed that the discrepancy could be due to dissection performed in FFPE samples. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper demonstrating that the results obtained in miRNAs analysis using Real-Time PCR starting from FFPE specimens of glioblastoma are comparable with those obtained in Fresh/Frozen samples